First, what ClassSense games are and are not. The four games (Never Look Down, Arena Brawl, Dig It Up, also called Deep Dig, and Escape Lab) are built from your skill-pack questions and played by each student on their own device. There is no host mode where you project one game on the board and control the pace for the room. If you want that, a whiteboard game or a printed Assessment is the closer fit. If you want every student answering for themselves, with each answer counted toward mastery, this is it.
The point of a review game is retrieval practice: students recalling material instead of re-reading it. The game wrapper is there to make that effortful work feel lighter. It does not matter much which one you pick; it matters a great deal that the questions are about material students have already met.
Before class
- Review only the skills you taught. A game is for practice, not first teaching. If the class has never seen the idea, a game produces noise.
- Choose the skills. Open the Students tab and the Gap Analysis view, which lists skills with the lowest class average first. Pick the bottom two or three.
- Make sure those packs are published. On the Skill Packs tab, a pack waiting for review is not available to students. Read it and press ✓ Publish.
- Check students have joined. They need the 6-character join code from the top of your course page. See setting up in ten minutes.
In class
Say what you are reviewing
Name the two or three skills, and say what you want them to notice: which questions they miss.
Students pick a game
They open the course on their own device and choose a game for those skills. Format choice is theirs.
You circulate
Stand beside students who stall, not the ones who race. Ask what they would choose before they tap.
Stop on time
Ten to fifteen minutes is plenty. Longer, and the game becomes the lesson.
After class
Every answer in a game updates mastery the same way ordinary practice does, so you do not need to collect anything. Open the Mastery Heatmap and look at the skills you reviewed. A column that stays red tells you the problem is the teaching, not the game. A row that stays red tells you who to sit with. For what the colours mean, see how to read mastery data.
Students pick a nickname and earn badges; the nicknames appear on a class wall. That is a nice side effect, but keep an eye on it. A leaderboard-style wall can feel good for the top group and miserable for the rest.
Pitfalls
- Speed pressure. Some students freeze when timed. Offer the Reading & Quiz format for anyone who needs lower pressure, and consider the low-pressure learning support on their student page.
- Game as reward. If it is a prize for finishing early, struggling students lose the practice they need.
- No follow-up. Ten minutes of play and no look at the results wastes the data.
Games are one tool among several. The review games page shows what the four look like, and the retrieval practice page explains the learning science behind it.
Common questions
Can I project a game on the board and run it as a class?
ClassSense does not have a host-controlled live game. Each student plays on their own device. For a whole-class game on the board, use a whiteboard or printed questions.
Do games count toward mastery?
Yes. Answers in games update mastery the way ordinary practice answers do.
Which game should I choose?
Students choose. The better question is which skills to review. Use the Gap Analysis view to pick the lowest class averages.
What if a student does not like games?
Students can choose the reading and quiz format instead, and switch formats at any time.